7COM1012 Operating Systems and Networks Assignment Sample

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1. Introduction: 7COM1012 Operating Systems and Networks

This project focuses on developing a prototype web server for GigaTec-IT to demonstrate the company’s ability to independently manage its web services and technological infrastructure. The initiative involves setting up a virtualised environment using Debian on VMware and configuring an Apache web server to host the company’s website. It also covers user management, networking, and security configurations to ensure stable and efficient website operation. This report serves as a comprehensive assignment help resource, outlining each stage of the setup and testing process to support GigaTec-IT’s goal of achieving autonomous IT service management.

7COM1012 Operating Systems and Networks Assignment Sample

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Chris Walker 5 Years | PhD

1.1 Business Problem

GigaTec-IT is accountable for making a needful strategic choice to handle the working of the technological infrastructure of the company to operate its online services autonomously. The company has concerns regarding continuous system operation with sufficient networking needs. In that aspect, it is responsible for planning to enhance the website to gather, save, and handle user information.

1.2 Technical Assumptions

• Considering the business scenario, the project is accountable for utilising a Windows host machine, VMware or Virtualbox can be used.
• As the virtualisation software Debian or Ubuntu can be used as the operating system for the web server.
• In terms of the need of the scenario, certain choices have been made to conduct the task as the host machine runs a Windows operating system with at least 8 GB RAM, 256 GB storage, and a reliable internet connection and the web server subsequently will use Apache or Nginx in terms of the the primary server software for hosting the website.

1.3 Aims and Objectives

Aim:

The research aims to develop a web server prototype that is capable of demonstrating GigaTec-IT’s capability to independently manage its web services.

Objectives:

• To install and configure Debian OS on VMware.
• To set up an Apache web server to host the company’s website.
• To implement user management and network configurations.

1.4 Scope of the Project

The project’s scope can be defined in terms of focusing on a basic website that is accountable for handling GigaTec-IT’s organizational content alongside managing user data collection capabilities. In that aspect, the scope indicates setting up a secure and functional web server with minimal resource usage while at the same time excluding advanced scalability features due to the limited resources of the test rig.

1.5 Timeline

• Set Up the Host Machine and Download Necessary Software (Duration: 2 days)
• Install and configure Debian as the guest operating system (Duration: 1 day)
• Configure Networking for VM (Duration: 1 day)
• Create Website Content (Duration: 2 days)
• Test Web Server Functionality (Duration: 2 days)

2. Background Research

2.1 Types of Operating Systems for Web Servers

Debian and Windows are the two most widely used operating systems when it comes to web hosting. Web hosting for Debian and Windows varies significantly in terms of price, program compatibility, resource consumption, and general stability (Kamble, 2023). Due to its open-source nature, Debian is typically less expensive compared to Windows, which involves licensing payments. In contrast, Windows hosting relies on Microsoft's exclusive products like IIS and SQL Server to make utilisation of open-source tools like Apache and MySQL (ReviewHell, 2021). Besides, the Ubuntu Server started slowly gaining prominence and is frequently the first choice among administrators, particularly those who are operating VPNs along with other relevant configurations (ThisHosting, 2019). In addition to ensuring a very stable and dependable operating system setting wherein malfunctions and problems are extremely unusual, CentOS makes sure that only the finest and most reliable code ends up staying in its repositories, even if it means being late to the update party (BitLaunch, 2022).

2.2 Virtualisation in Network Environments

The benefits of moving to a virtual environment are numerous and involve time and cost savings, greater business continuity, and the capacity to recuperate from disasters. According to Rashid and Chaturvedi (2019), a centralised computer or server that hosts an application for several consumers by eliminating the requirement to install software on each machine individually is known as virtualisation. With unique features and restrictions, VMware, VirtualBox, and Hyper-V each address various virtualisation requirements. A popular option for professional settings, VMware Workstation is responsible for excelling in speed, dependability, and wide OS compatibility (Windows, Linux, and macOS) and offers advanced features like snapshots, cloning, and Docker integration. It offers a free, easy-to-use substitute for personal usage (Shaurya, 2023).

On the other hand, VirtualBox has a simple UI and excellent compatibility across platforms and is perfect for consumers and small enterprises. Its performance could turn out slightly less effective as compared to VMware's and it might not be as appropriate for enterprise-level requirements. In contrast, due to its strong security measures and high performance for both Windows and Linux guests, Hyper-V is ideal for situations that are centred around Windows (Shaurya, 2023). However, it is only compatible with Windows hosts, and additional licensing can be needed for advanced capabilities.

2.3 Network Functionality and Security

Reliability of the networking stack across various platforms is essential in context while assessing network security. Ubuntu and Debian both are effective in network traffic management as Linux's TCP/IP stack is designed specifically for efficiency to handle low latency and fast throughput (Medium, 2024). Since Linux is open source, it facilitates a transparent security approach and as a result, it becomes simpler to verify and modify deployments to comply with confidentiality regulations like GDPR or HIPAA (Memel, 2021). Its robust controls on access and user privilege separation assist protect confidential information and ensure compliance.

2.4 Network Architecture and Web Server Setup

Web hosting is essential for businesses for a professional online presence by allowing websites to function efficiently by hosting them on powerful servers maintained by hosting providers. These providers offer various types of hosting, such as shared, reseller, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated, and cloud hosting and each of them is responsible for dealing with different needs in terms of capacity, control, and cost (WebsiteHosting, 2022). Shared hosting is affordable but comes with limitations while VPS offers more control and resources. On the other hand, dedicated hosting provides the highest level of performance and cloud hosting scales resources dynamically, making it ideal for websites with fluctuating traffic.

Nginx and Apache both are popular web servers but they differ in performance and request handling. Nginx is accountable for excelling at serving static content while as well as using FastCGI for dynamic caching and this way it offers better efficiency as compared to Apache’s mod_cache (Gallage, 2024). In contrast, Apache struggles with performance due to its process-based approach as it creates a new process for each request. However, the modular architecture is capable of enabling only necessary modules (e.g., SSL/TLS for secure connections) to reduce the server's attack surface and resource usage (Jankov, 2019).

2.5. Database Management, Network Models and Protocols

A network protocol is a collection of guidelines which regulate data exchange between different devices connected to a network (GeeksForGeeks, 2021). The OSI and TCP/IP models are key frameworks for understanding network communication. The OSI model is responsible for consisting of seven layers and further provides a detailed reference for system communication. In contrast, the TCP/IP model focuses on internet connectivity as different protocols like TCP, IP, ICMP, and UDP enable data transfer (Medium, 2023). TCP/IP offers flexibility in connecting hosts and transmitting application-level data, whereas OSI acts as a more structured model with specific protocols. The web server can communicate with clients according to the HTTP protocol, which is utilised for internet communication and functions at the application layer. Secure data transfer requires HTTPS (HTTP Secure), an encrypted variant of HTTP that uses SSL/TLS.

3. Pre-Engagement

3.1 Business Requirements

GigaTec-IT is a small-to-medium enterprise (SME) in the tech-services industry and is accountable for having a clear need to handle the web services provided by third-party organisations. In that aspect, the business requirements can be listed as follows.

• GigaTec-IT seeks to host its company’s website internally to gain control over its IT services while simultaneously reducing reliance on third-party providers.
• The company website seeks to deal with the collection and processing of the data while ensuring compliance with security regulations.
• Being an SME, the company seeks to ensure handling varying levels of traffic and become stable while handling increased load during peak times and growing as the company expands its customer base.

3.2 Mapping Business Requirements to Design Decisions

As mentioned above about the business requirements, specific design decisions can be taken in terms of guiding the set-up of the test rig. In terms of the need, and considering the literature analysis, Debian is being chosen as the operating system to handle the task linked to web hosting. Moreover, the test rig is going to run Apache to run the company website. Apache is known for its low memory usage, event-driven architecture and high concurrency handling, and will be selected for the web server software. Moreover, the test rig is going to be optimised with the use of lightweight Linux distributions by choosing Debian as the primary OS. In the current context, having a reliable DNS configuration can ensure that the domain will always point to the correct IP address, minimizing the risk of downtime. Moreover, the proactive monitoring of the web server can help in the process of maintaining reliable configuration.

3.3 Rig Setup

3.3.1 Host Machine and VM Setup

The host machine is set up with Windows 10 to run the VMware Workstation. VMware Workstation is installed to create the virtual machines that will run the test rig. Debian 11 is installed on the virtual machine as the guest operating system. The VM is responsible for getting configured with a static IP address within the test network to ensure the server is reachable both internally and externally.

3.3.2 Web Server Installation

Apache is installed via package manager’s apt-get install apache2. Further, the status has been checked and it is in the active state as can be seen from the above figure. 

3.3.3 Developing the Webpage

With virtual hosts, users can utilise a single server for hosting several websites. Generally, files from the /var/www/html directory are served by Apache. Before creating a virtual host configuration file, one must first establish an entirely fresh directory to store the website's files (Dubey, 2023). As can be seen from the above figure, the necessary file has been created. The index.html page (provided in Appendix 1) is placed in the web server’s root directory (e.g., /var/www/html for Apache).

As can be seen above, this HTML code has been utilised to create a simple and responsive webpage for GigaTec-IT. It has included a header with a title and welcome message and further a main section has been created with three content sections (About Us, Services, and Contact Us). It also has footer with copyright information. The "About Us" section describes GigaTec-IT’s services and the "Our Services" section illustrates operating systems the company supports. Moreover, the "Contact Us" section is accountable for providing the overall contact details for the company. With the help of a basic CSS style format, the page showcases a blue and white theme and that is how it gives a proper structure and styling to each section, as well as adding a shadow effect and background colours for visual attractiveness.

3.3.4 Testing the Webpage

The IP address has been checked to utilise in checking whether the webpage is working or not. In that aspect, from the Debian, a web browser has been opened and the IP has been used to open the local host.

The web server is tested by accessing the IP address or domain from a browser to ensure that the page loads correctly. Network connectivity is verified by pinging the virtual machine from both the host machine and another device on the same network. As a result, GigaTec-IT will be able to host its website using effective planning, development, and implementation processes of a prototype network system to ensure smooth operation and conform to ethical and network standards. Considering that fact, VMware is responsible for enabling the creation of an isolated test rig for the system while Debian is chosen for its stability, lightweight nature, and extensive community support that significantly makes it an ideal OS to handle work linked to the hosting of web services (Ivankov, 2021).

4. Engagement

4.1 Comparison of Different Operating Systems (OS) and Architecture

The OS and hardware components must communicate with one another through drivers to deal with correct operation. In contrast to Windows OS to deal with proprietary drivers from hardware manufacturers, Linux-based operating systems such as Debian and Ubuntu usually utilise open-source drivers. The hardware component architecture could impact OS compatibility and performance. In contrast to Windows OS, which frequently requires more resources for comparable activities, Debian is effective and uses fewer resources (Malallah et al., 2021). For optimal performance, Windows 10 may need 4 GB or more of RAM, whereas Debian may run successfully on 2 GB.

Solid State Drives, or SSDs, work well with Linux while handling storage-related tasks because the operating system is capable of taking advantage of the file system's characteristics to speed up input/output. Software-wise, Linux environments come with server-side programs like PHP, MySQL, and PHPMyAdmin already set up to handle web development. The LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) is available as a single installation on Debian (Atienza, 2024). Although Java runs identically on all operating systems since it is cross-platform, server-grade Linux servers are recommended for Java server applications because of their reliability and security. Additionally, Linux servers like Debian are favoured due to their open-source nature and smaller memory footprint, which allow for more customised installations at a lesser cost—perfect for SMEs like GigaTec-IT.

4.2. Networks, Types, and Virtualization

The OSI architecture is accountable for including seven levels while TCP/IP has four (Onyia et al., 2021). The TCP/IP deals with a more direct approach though OSI is capable of handling linked functionalities in terms of integrating with HTTP, DNS, and other internet protocols to be used in a business network design like GigaTec-IT's. Additionally, routers, switches, and wireless routers control traffic inside the network architecture, so network hardware is essential. Routers are capable of connecting various networks by guiding data packets between them to ensure WAN (Wide Area Network) connectivity, such as connecting GigaTec-IT's office network to other networks (GeeksforGeeks, 2018). Switches function at Layer 2 (Data Link), whereas routers function at Layer 3 (Network).

5. Post-Engagement

5.1 Mitigation and Recommendations

Scalability is an essential concept in terms of assuring a layered approach through the use of multi-tier architecture with dedicated servers for web, application and database-linked functionalities. Moreover, regular backups can ensure handling cloud-based redundancy while as well as dealing with redundancy (Hyper, 2023). The security features of the website are equally crucial to its effectiveness. Malware or cyberattack incidents can lead to a decline in client confidence and compromised customer data. Experiencing and fixing problems is a typical and vital part of the web hosting industry. It is fair to assume that the hosting company would respect customer time and take immediate action to resolve any outages. In the unlikely scenario that the web host is unable to control an outage, they ought to be considerate and accommodating of the predicament.

5.3 Self-Reflection

This project has helped in gathering a lot of knowledge on server management, virtualisation, and network configuration. This practical experience has helped me to get an idea about the importance of understanding the balance between system functionality and resources. I gained an idea about the Linux-based servers function and overseeing network services has increased as a result of configuring Debian and Apache on VMware. With this study, I gained detailed knowledge about the process of web hosting, related software, hardware, and all other related things. I came to know that the utility of Debian is being chosen as the operating system to handle the tasks linked to web hosting. Moreover, the test rig runs Apache to run the company website. Apache is known for its low memory usage, event-driven architecture and high concurrency handling, and will be selected for the web server software. This knowledge significantly helps me in implementing more advanced security measures to improve my technological skills.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, this is notable that, to enhance the company's technical infrastructure through online web hosting independently, GigaTec-IT is responsible for making the needful strategic decisions in maintaining system functionality and meeting adequate networking requirements. In that aspect, the project includes the proper choice of necessary set-up in terms of hosting OS as Windows, virtualisation software as VMWare and VM OS as Debian. Moreover, the test rig has run Apache to host the website. Apache is known for its low memory usage, event-driven architecture and high concurrency handling, and will be selected for the web server software. As a result, GigaTec-IT has been able to host its website using effective planning, development, and implementation processes of a prototype network system to ensure smooth operation and conform to ethical and network standards.

References

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